There. Lance Armstrong said it. No ifs, buts or maybes. No letting his fans — does he have any left? — down gently. Just wham! Take pretty much everything you know about me, that fairytale I sold you and got rich and famous on, and ditch it.

The reality of Armstrong is ugly, filled with syringes and bags of blood injected in hotel rooms in France to make him ride faster and longer. To his credit, Armstrong admitted that his behavior as he perpetuated the lie that became his life was often ugly, too.